Alfio BASILE will keep on working for Boca Juniors until September 14th. That day, Boca will face Sao Paulo (Brazil) for the South American Cup Winners Cup and after that game, he will officially become Argentina manager.
That will give Boca some time to decide on BASILE’s replacement and it is a reasonable amount of time for Argentina not to waste a lot of time without a manager.
With Alfio BASILE’s arrival after Boca Juniors tour of Mexico, is all set for a key meeting between COCO himself, Julio GRONDONA (president of the AFA) and Mauricio MACRI (Boca’s president).
They will decide in this meeting when will BASILE take over as manager of Argentina and when will he quit Boca Juniors. It is a clear fight of power between a club who doesn’t want to be without a manager one week before the start of the local league and an AFA desperate to start a new process after PEKERMAN’s resignation.
Today is a very important day for Team Argentina as it could be the start of a new era or the beginning of a 6-month chaotic situation.
GRONDONA even said ‘If BASILE is not taking over right now, then I will!’ at the time he suggested that MARADONA should take over as Boca interim manager.
SAVIOLA’S FATE
In other news, the endless summer is getting to an end for Javier SAVIOLA and the little rabbitt is still uncertain about his future. The latest news is that he is still training with FC Barcelona but has been offered to Racing de Santander in a deal that will keep him in La Liga. There is nothing official about it. We’re gonna have to stay tunned.
A NEW ‘LITTLE CLOWN’ IN ZARAGOZA
I don’t know if you knew that Pablo AIMAR’s nickname is ‘PAYASITO’. That means ‘Little Clown’. Anyway, the story is that he was unveiled in Real Zaragoza’s Estadio La Romareda as their new star player. The event was held in front of 5000 Zaragoza’s supporters who are ready to live a great season with AIMAR in their team. In the meantime, midfielder Leandro SOMOZA (ex Velez Sarsfield) was officialy presented as a new Villarreal player.
TALL ARGENTINA
The basketball national team continue their preparation for the World Championships in Japan (as I continue to work in that preview I promised you). Argentina defeated Venezuela for the second time this week in one of the semifinals of the Super 4 friendly tournament. The result was a heavy 94-55 in favour of the Albicelestes and tonight they will face Brazil in the final, after our neighbours defeated New Zealand in the other semifinal.
It was a good test for Sergio HERNANDEZ’s men as Venezuela will be one of our rivals during the World Championships.
Ever since I started playing these games in 1998 I became a huge fan and I think I’m slightly addicted to Fantasy Sports.
I’m playing Yahoo! Fantasy Football (NFL), Basketball (NBA), Baseball (MLB) and the UEFA.com versions of the Fantasy Champions League and UEFA Cup.
But one of the Fantasy games I enjoy the most is the Premier League version.
I’ve discovered that besides playing it just for fun, you develop a great knowledge of every sport by following players and teams you barely knew they existed.
This time around, I’ve come up with the idea of creating a league for us, regulars of this blog, so we can play together.
The season starts on August 5th so we’ve got one week before kick-off and I’m sure we’re going to have some fun.
What we can do is: send me your preferred e-mail address to argentina.correspondent@gmail.com and I’ll send you the invitation to join our league.
In the meantime, you can go directly to http://fantasy.premierleague.com and create your team right away. Rules and instructions are easy to find.
Hope you’ll join me and if this is your first season, I’m sure you’ll thank me for this invitation!
Oh…and by the way…if there are Fantasy players out there and you know a good free Fantasy game for the following european leagues, just let me know:
-Spain
-Italy
-France
-Germany
I’m trying to find a game similar to the Premier League one but so far I had no luck!
Real Zaragoza have made official the signing of Argentina star Pablo AIMAR for the next four seasons in exchange of 11 million Euros.
The Valencia CF playmaker is moving to La Romareda Stadium and will join fellow argentines: Gabriel MILITO, Diego MILITO, Andrés D’ALESSANDRO and Leonardo PONZIO.
Pablo AIMAR, 26 years old, played almost 200 matches for Valencia. He won 2 Spanish League titles, 1 UEFA Cup and 1 European Supercup, getting to the Champions League final in the process.
As a clear image of what PABLITO means for Valencia fans and how much they will miss him, last night before leaving his former team’s training ground, a young Valencia supporter started crying because he was sad to see him leave. It was Pablo AIMAR who tried to console him and give him comfort.
As I keep on writing the basketball world championships preview (it’ll soon be ready) and I’m yet to start an article about the coming Apertura Tournament, here are a few pieces of news about Argentina.
NO BAFANA-BAFANA THIS TIME:
The friendly match against South Africa, originally scheduled for August 15th, then postponed, then scheduled again was officially cancelled. That decision came due to a lack of time to organise it. As BASILE is prepared to take over in Argentina, Carlos Alberto PARREIRA, Brazil’s manager in USA 94 and Germany 2006 have signed a pre-contract with the South African FA and will most probably become the manager of the host of the next World Cup.
In the agenda there is a visit to Europe OR the USA for two friendly matches in September. No rival has been confirmed yet.
BASILE IS NEXT, BUT WHEN?
A great controversy is on the menu these days between Boca Juniors and the AFA. BASILE feels he is in between the devil and the deep blue sea as his club, with which he has a contract until December, and the AFA continue to argue regarding the right time for BASILE to make the transition. The AFA want him immediately, while Boca Juniors feel they have not time to look for another manager with the Apertura tournament around the corner. They will even consider to ask the AFA for a postponement of their first couple of matches of that tournament if they can’t find a solution.
“I WISH I COULD PLAY WITH TEVEZ AND KUN”
In an interview published this Friday by OLE (a sports newspaper from Buenos Aires), Lionel MESSI said he is still sorry for playing little time in Germany. He also said he can’t wait for the season to get started with FC Barcelona and that he would love to play for Argentina alongside his friend Sergio “KUN” AGÜERO. MESSI said: “Football is more beautiful when you play it short passes. I know BASILE has an attacking mentality and I love that.”
A RABBITT STAYING IN BARCELONA?
MESSI could have another co-countryman playing in his club after the departure of Maxi LOPEZ (now playing at Mallorca). Javier SAVIOLA is yet to find a club who want to buy him and he is training with Catalan club. Txiki BEGIRISTAIN, an important directive in Barcelona, said that if by the 31st of July, SAVIOLA didn’t find a club to play for, he will stay and he will probably play some minutes this season. He will have a tough competition for places with the likes of RONALDINHO, MESSI, ETO’O, EZQUERRO, GIULY and GUDJOHNSEN ahead of him in the pecking order.
SORIN MOVING TO ENGLAND?
Bolton Wanderers and Villarreal reached an agreement on Argentina’s skipper Juan Pablo SORIN. It is yet to be determined if the English club can pay what SORIN is asking. If the deal comes through, it will be SORIN’s sixth different country in his career after playing in Argentina, Italy, Spain, Brazil and France.
UNOFFICIAL DEBUT FOR ABBONDANZIERI
Argentina’s goalkeeper during the last World Cup have played in a friendly match for his new club Getafe. They have won 3-2 against the little club Gimnástica Segoviana. Alongside PATO ABBONDANZIERI, Lucas LITCH ex Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata in Argentina, also made his debut for Getafe.
BASKETBALL:
ARGENTINA WINS FIRST FRIENDLY
With all the key players taking part of the match, Argentina defeated Venezuela 96-82 at Mar del Plata. It was the first friendly in the preparation for the World Championships in Japan (starting on August 19th against France). Manu GINOBILI scored 20 points and the crowd was really excited to see the Olympic Champions in action for the first time in Argentina after that incredible victory in Athens 2004.
This weekend Argentina will play a friendly Super-4 tournament with Brazil, New Zeland and Venezuela.
